My daughter writes to the fairies. They live at the bottom of the garden and magically, when she pens them a note and leaves it under her pillow, a reply is left in its place.

Don't look at me like that. There is nothing wrong with having mythical creatures as pen pals. It's excellent reading and writing practice, plus with their plant-based nomenclature, rather a good way of increasing horticultural knowledge

My elder son started school this week. To say it's not going well is an understatement of epic proportions. One morning it took us nearly fifteen minutes to wrestle on his school uniform, every day there are tears from almost the moment he gets out of bed, and he even wakes in the night, crying

For anyone who has followed my sunflower growing this summer, it will come as no surprise when I admit that I'm, well, just a little bit.... competitive. What can I say? It's in my genes. I come from one of those families where Monopoly eventually had to be banned because it resulted in too much bloodshed

So she may have wanted a Barbie camera, pink Nintendo DS or Bendaroos, but my daughter has just turned six, and in this house that means you get your own set of stainless steel, ash-handled child-sized garden tools - whether you want them or not